The meeting will be the 12th special session of the council, following the Security Council's open debate on the Middle East expected in New York on Wednesday.

The Palestinians have pressed for a vote on the report at the UN Human Rights Council, effectively a policy reverse by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, whose government had earlier agreed to delay the vote for six months.

That decision, apparently made under US pressure, sparked sharp criticism and protests across Palestinian society.

Should a vote takes place by the council, the matter could be referred to higher UN bodies that could, in theory, push for a war-crimes prosecution.

The news of the UN special session comes a day after Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, lashed out against the Goldstone report, which criticises Israel for deliberately targeting civilians during its war on Gaza earlier this year.

He called the report, compiled by a team led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge, a "distorted report, written by this distorted committee".

"This report encourages terrorism and threatens peace," he said, and announced that he would never allow any of the country's leaders or soldiers to be put on trial for war crimes.